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11 Responses to Jan2_Real Wages

These statistics use the mean, but the median would be a truer indicator. I have looked for this kind of chart based on the median rather than the mean, but have not been able to find any. Any suggestions?

Thank you, that is helpful. People talk about what is or is not good for “the economy”, and they seem to usually have in mind GDP or GDP per capita. But to me, a truer measure of whether the American people are doing better or not economically is whether the median wage is increasing or decreasing, adjusted for inflation.

Jason, Thanks for comments. Using the nominal dollars does not take into account the real purchasing power for wages. The economic wage is the real wage, which is the nominal wage in 2012 dollars divided by the consumer price index.